TDCJ also released the names of the two prison officers and eight offenders who were killed in the accident.

Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS) Spokesperson Elizabeth Barney said it appeared there was ice on I-20 when the accident took place.

Barney also said seat belts were not available to the prisoners aboard the bus, and are not specifically required by state law for passengers on transport buses like the one involved in the crash.

The driver was wearing a seat belt as required by law, and on this particular bus, the two other guards aboard did have access to seat belts.

Original Post, Wednesday 1/14/15

Texas prison officers and eight offenders are dead after a prison transport bus skidded off I-20 near Odessa Wednesday morning and landed on a train.

Five other people who were aboard the bus were sent to Medical Center Hospital (MCH) in Odessa with injuries hospital spokesperson Tiffany Harston described as “pretty severe.”

Nobody aboard the train was injured in the crash.

TDCJ said the bus was traveling from the state prison system’s Middleton Unit in Abilene to its Sanchez Unit in El Paso when it slid off the interstate and collided with a Union Pacific train.

It’s not clear yet whether winter weather contributed to the event, but some light freezing rain and freezing fog had been present across West Texas early Wednesday morning and in recent days.

Four other prisoners and one prison staffer were transported to Medical Center Hospital in Odessa. The hospital said around 1 p.m. that one person was in critical condition, and the other four were in serious condition.

The hospital couldn’t confirm any details about the identities of the patients, such as which of the five were the prisoners and which one was the prison employee.

The National Transportation Safety Board has dispatched a team to the scene to investigate the accident.

NTSB launching team to Odessa,Texas, accident between prison bus and train.